


Ordinary

by Spinacheese93



Category: Free!
Genre: First time putting effort in writing Haru, Gen, Haru might be OOC, Mentions of Gou - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-10
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-02-12 12:53:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2110629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spinacheese93/pseuds/Spinacheese93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wrote this for Nanase Haruka's birthday event. Not sure if it made it, haven't have time to check. But here goes</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ordinary

_The water is alive. Once you dive in, it will immediately bare its fangs and attack. But, there’s nothing to fear. Don’t resist the water. Thrust your fingers into the water surface and carve an opening. Then you slide your body through that opening._

                Nanase Haruka found himself reminiscing the words of his twelve year old self again. This time, outside of the water. Not quite. It was before he let himself sink into the comfort of his own bath tub. The soothing envelope of the ever so familiar coolness eased every knots and joints of his body from a long period of work. He had been doing odd jobs after graduation, trying to open his opportunities in life after school as wide as he could. He knew he should when he asked about Rin’s dreams. The thought of his own dream crossed his mind once in a while, but when Rin can finally answer his question with clarity and determination, Haru think he should too. Not just because the competitive trigger from his rival-cum-friend, he just think he should put a little more effort when it comes to the future.

 

                After graduation, he saw both Rin and his childhood friend Makoto, off to Tokyo where they planned to pursue their dreams. Nagisa and Rei were to continue in their final year of high school along with Gou, and during their practice, Haru would show up for some dipping session for himself, giving some tips and pep talk to some juniors joining the Swim Club. It was unlikely that he can give pep talk given with his natural poker face and no-care-of-the-world-whatsoever attitude, but he did it so well because he was the ever so honest-despite-the-circumstance-and-consequences Nanase Haruka. That somehow had touched the students.

 

                Then, he decided to go to places and try many things.  He didn’t go too far, but he tried working at different places for experience. He learned that the jobs required fine details kept him focused, and he sometimes do things out of impulses. He had a hard time with some jobs that required him to interact with people, but is good at listening, and at times, he could give great advices too. He likes quiet place rather than a lively place. He felt at home when there is water involved. It might be one of those journeys of self-realization.

 

_Don’t resist the water. Welcome it. We accept one another._

                Haruka begin to immerse more of his head up to his nose in the water.  The familiar sense of numbness to the outside world began to fill. After two years of working odd jobs and wandering around, he was back at his Grandmother’s house. The house was not abandoned since his parents would made several visits a year for celebrations and sometimes, just to say hi. Before he left, Haruka left a long note. Besides telling them what he was up to, he also told them to keep the house in its best condition, although he never would have expect that it would take him this long to return. He never lost contact with his parents, called them every time he got to a new place, with his mother’s order of course.

 

_My late grandma taught me an old saying, “When you’re ten, they call you a prodigy. When you’re fifteen, they call you a genius. Once you hit twenty, you’re just an ordinary person. ”_

                The voice of his younger self kept on resounding and that’s when he realized that he was out of breath and resurfaced with a few frequent gasps.

 

                “I am twenty today.” He said to himself as to remind himself the moment he had been waiting for.

 

                His phone rang after a few seconds. It was in his pajama pants in the basket outside of the bath. He was woken up by Makoto who announced that he and Rin had just arrived home and later they planned a reunion and birthday celebration for Haru. This call is from someone who is familiar but now with quite a deeper voice. It was Nagisa, as perky as he always is.

 

                “Haru-chan, I called just to remind you that we meet up at ‘our restaurant’ at 2, since Mako-chan said he had some catching up to do with his family.” Haruka replied with the usual hum.

 

* * *

 

 

                There are many times in Haruka’s life where he regrets things. Things like trespassing into their old swimming club, the Samezuka Academy pool, giving effort to trivial things and also blurting out his desire to become ordinary to his friends.

 

                When his birthday cake is brought forth accompanied by the Happy Birthday tune from his friends, that’s when he had an undescribable mixed feeling.

 

                _Happy Ordinary_ is written on the cake.

 

                “Nee, Haru. I doubt you are ordinary even if you’re twenty.” Rin just let something so unexpected nonchalantly. “I mean…”

 

                Rin leaned closer to Haru. As a matter of fact, too close. Rin’s nose was touching the bangs of his hair, which then went lower to his lips.

 

                “You still smell like mackerel. Faint, but yeah. Still the same Haru.”

 

                Makoto pulled Rin away from Haru by grabbing the back of Rin’s collar. “That’s enough, Rin. I told you to stay at least 2 feet away from Haru.”

 

                “Why? Because I’m a bad influence? I bet, you’re just jealous,” Rin replied sarcastically, as if resuming a conversation with Makoto from somewhere when they are together in Tokyo.

 

                Makoto just gave Rin a look that made him stopped talking. He let go of Rin’s collar. “I have my ‘fangs’ to remind me.”

 

                “Yeah, so is my tongue.”

 

                “Rin-san, Makoto-senpai, are you going to start fighting? God, what happened to the both of you?” Rei cut them off.

 

                “Rin made me file my canine.” Makoto showed his pair of canines which were now sharp as Rin’s teeth.

 

                “Thanks to those, vampire lovers crowd you all the time, Mr New Edward Cullen. You should thank me for that. But what did you do? Put this on me.” Rin stuck his tongue out and on the flesh was a tiny silver stud. “Thank God, this doesn’t add up any resistance when I swim.”

 

                “I’m actually doing you a favour. I’ve heard ‘those’ rumors from the girls you used to date, saying how they would miss you.”

 

                “Guys, guys! I don’t know what happened to the both of you while in Tokyo, can we just let it slide and let Haru blow the candles off and cut the cake already? The strawberries are tempting me.” Nagisa butted in.

 

                “Nagisa, you just ate half of the pizza alone, you know what the doctor would say if he finds out.”

 

                “Rei-chan is so mean. Can I just let loose for this one day. It is Haru-chan’s birthday.”

 

                “That is why we should make him feel special.” Rei added.

 

                It’s not that Haru minded that he was ignored, but at times, it’s good to be a spectator rather than the main event. He knew his friends were lively, even after graduation. Everyone has changed at some point, but some part of them are still the same. They had cake, some drinks, a few exchange of stories, some body modification debates and a walk on the beach during sunset, reminiscing the summer camp three years ago.

 

                “If Haru was the Haru three years ago, he would strip-”

 

                Haru had taken off his shirt and was ready to embrace the warm water of summer.

 

                “What? I didn’t have my swimsuit on.” Haru pulled of his pants to reveal a loose summer shorts. “It’s summer.”

 

                Nanase Haruka dived into the water that had been calling him since they took a detour to the beach. So what if he didn’t gave up mackerel. So what if he had more collection of swimsuits than ever before. So what if he still have the undying indescribable love towards water. What is ordinary anyway? When he was 12 he thinks that the water is alive, when he was 17, he thinks that it was stupid. At the age of 17 he wanted to be ordinary, at 20…? He was free.

**Author's Note:**

> The funny thing is, I made them all straight. Haru had one or two romantic encounters while he was looking for himself, so heartbreaks are also what makes him. Rin fooled around much, Makoto was very popular at goukons, the doctor is Nagisa's girlfriend but Rei referred her as the doctor due to the fact that she was older and someone Rei looked up to, Rei's a doctor too. I don't think I should put all this in the fic, but this was up in my head when I wrote this


End file.
